Luke stood right in front of me, and for a second I couldn’t help but be distracted. He was in a suit much like last time, and he looked even better than I remembered. I thought he looked a little paler, and his face slightly pinched in discomfort when he shifted his body.

I wondered if he'd been injured, and felt worried. But he was standing alive and well, and I had come here for a reason.

I took a deep breath and dived into the story.

"So, I've been checking into Greco’s activities for a while."

He frowned, but he must have guessed that before this point. I'd be disappointed if he hadn't. He didn’t speak, just waited for me to continue.

"When I went to the party, that wedding, I wasn’t lying when I said someone there did invite me. I just didn’t bother to look for a formal invitation. But because you were there, and I sort of guessed… what you do, I just left after we had our fun."

"Fun," he muttered. "Is that what you're calling it." But he shook his head before I could reply to that. "When you say, you guessed what I do…"

"I know you're working as a hitman for Greco," I said bluntly and watched as he stiffened. "Well, know is a pretty strong word, but really I was just guessing, though I didn’t think I was wrong. I mean, I am in the same business, after all."

I watched as his body grew rigid, keeping my own relaxed and hoping he wouldn’t pull a weapon on me. I hoped he wouldn’t, because I didn’t have anything on me I could get in my hand before he could jump me. I wasn’t sure he even had anything, but without the heels this time, our size difference was a bit more obvious. I was five ten, and he was around six three, which meant he had about five inches and maybe twenty percent more muscle mass on me. I was confident in my fighting skills, but I'd only been learning for the past four years, and this was a man that had been in the army, which meant we learned different skills, and his would likely be better than mine.

But he didn’t do anything, just stood still. After a bit, his body relaxed, with some effort.

"Go on."

"Okay. So, I left, and I kept tabs on Greco in the time since. I got a message from him through one of my… um, clients. Luke, he wanted me to become his hit woman."

He frowned. "But why? As far as I know, he hasn’t had anyone else in that position since I joined him, and it's been five years."

I shrugged. "The information was passed to me by a contact of mine, one of the guys I use to get jobs because I don’t work for any one person, organization, or group. I didn’t understand why he was reaching out to me because I knew he already had someone—"

"Wait, how did you know that?" he cut me off, frown deepening as he took a step closer.

It took a great deal of will not to move, flinch back from his advance, although it didn’t seem threatening. Still, Luke was an intimidating man, and even though I knew the frown gracing his face wasn’t really aimed at me, my instincts screamed at me to keep distance between us when he wasn’t exactly happy.

"How do you think I know that, Luke," I said, forcing sarcasm in my voice to hide the tremble that wanted to come out instead. "No one has an empire that airtight, especially not a criminal. I know what Greco is, I know he's a big part of the Italian mafia here in the US. With that information, it wasn’t that difficult to find someone that could get me some inside intel. Do you want to ask me for names?" I wouldn’t give it to them if he did.

He was still, but then slowly shook his head. "No. It's not really my business, and I just don’t care. You're right, leaks are inevitable in most ranks. So, this informant of yours got information that had you interested enough to come here and talk to me? What is it?"

I watched him intently, wondering how to word it. I was going to tell him the truth either way, but I wasn’t sure if there was a way I could put it delicately, or if I even should. I didn’t have anything planned because I didn’t know him enough to know what would and would not trigger his anger. But going with the truth was working so far, so I thought it was safe enough to stick to.

"I heard about the General."

His expression went tight. "The General," he repeated.

"Yes, Luke, the General. I have several sources, not all of them from inside Greco's organization. A man known only as the General has been in touch with Greco. And the reason why he is suddenly in the market for a new killer is because he is planning to kill you."

His face bloomed in surprise. "What…"

"One of Greco's men—not any that I've talked to—has been feeding information about you, lying to Greco. Telling him you were betraying him. Not a lot of Greco's employees know this, but there are quite a few that heard the information and kept it to themselves. If you were maybe closer to the rest of them, you might even have found out for yourself, but I do understand why you aren’t."

The need to remain anonymous no matter what, so even when you're caught you can bluff your way out of the situation, even if you were guilty, because as far as anyone cared you weren’t anyone of much significance. I'd understood that when I decided to take on the job.

"Did you get a name?"

I shook my head. "No. Though I'm sure this man betrayed Greco himself, and he was just blaming it on you. It's none of the guys I've talked to, though, I'm sure of that. It's probably someone close to him."

"How could he…"

"When you think about it, it makes sense," I told him, not unkindly. When he narrowed his eyes at me, I held up one hand. "I'm taking a shot in the dark here, but I will guess the man is Italian—pretty much everyone in his organization is Italian, except you. It's entirely possible the man is even a friend of the family, Greco wouldn’t listen otherwise, and I'm sure most of his family doesn’t know what you do. And you're Irish, so, of course, he'll believe a close friend of the family over you."

Luke growled. "Son of a bitch." He ran his hand through his hair, so harshly I winced at the pain I imagined he was inflicting on himself. "I suspected something was wrong, but I can't believe he actually..."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because my missions have been going bad lately, a few times I nearly got caught. But when I talked to him about it, he said there was no issue. And for a while, there wasn’t, but then I nearly died."

I frowned, didn’t even bother to hide my displeasure. "So, you are injured."

He winced, hand raising in an abortive move to his stomach before he clenched his fist and forced his arm down.

"It's nothing, practically healed over by now."

I didn’t believe him, but I didn’t argue.

"And this celebration… he told me it was supposed to take place on Saturday, but for some reason, he insisted on everyone being present and even early. I mean, he has a mansion and several buildings on that island, I don’t doubt he can house all these people for the night if it bleeds into tomorrow, but I thought it was odd at the time."

I watched him as he scowled to himself, sorting his thoughts out in his mind. I gave him a moment to get his thoughts in order, but he seemed to only grow more frustrated.

"I'm not sure what or when it will happen, or if you'd even realize. I heard, and I just…. I had to warn you. Don’t ask me why." I warned him when he narrowed his eyes at me and opened his mouth. I held my hand up until he closed his mouth, then sighed and dropped it. I suddenly wished I had my hair down so I could run my fingers through it. "I don’t know why myself. I just… wanted to warn you."

He frowned, and I wanted to shut him down, but he dropped the subject, and he looked like he was thinking deeply about something.

"Is there more you aren’t telling me?"

"You have all the info I got, just the condensed version." There was no reason why I would hold back anything when it involved his life. He could do with the information whatever he wanted. "Look, I can't stick around long, I told that guy I was taking a bathroom break and I was going to drive the truck back."

"You're not staying for the party?"

"No. I only got this far because I was hoping I'd get a chance to talk to you, and now I have." I shrugged, turned around to the mirror as I pulled the hat back on, positioning it just right so most of my face wasn’t in view. "And I seriously advise you don’t go over there, either, Luke. I'm not sure if, or how, he can set you up with all those people around, but just be careful."

There wasn’t anything left to say, but I found myself wanting to stay anyway. I'd missed him, more than I would have thought, and I hadn't realized how much until he was within reach. But I had things to do, and he had a decision to make himself. I walked past him, heading for the door before I could talk myself into staying.

I was leaving him to think about it, but he stopped me, calling my name. I turned around almost instantly, a little too eagerly.

"I need to be able to contact you."

That would be convenient. I narrated my number for him and then left the bathroom, wondering if he would use it.